


Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

by Sdktrs12



Series: Something Gained [7]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Angst and Feels, Breaking and Entering, F/M, Lack of Communication, Stress Baking, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22042642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sdktrs12/pseuds/Sdktrs12
Summary: Favor #5- Sick Day (a favor for Rio)Beth takes her cooking apron off (another favorite gift, this one from Ruby, a blue and red floral painterly pattern that she loves) and hurries into her room to change out of her current clothing. She rationalizes it with the fact that she’s been in them running errands and baking all day. Going to see Rio has absolutely nothing to do with it.She pulls on a red and white floral wrap dress that she hasn’t worn in ages, rolling her eyes at herself as she pulls on her strappy heels, trying not to think about the dress she’d been wearing that night and how easy it had been for him to get under it...Thatis not whatthisis about. Although... don’t they say it’s good to sweat out a fever?Beth huffs out a laugh, shaking her head as she pushes the heel of her hands against her eyes, groaning.This is a terrible idea.But she’s going to do it anyway.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio, Marcus & Rio (Good Girls)
Series: Something Gained [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556221
Comments: 22
Kudos: 137





	Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

**Author's Note:**

> There's only one more part of this series to go!  
> Thanks for all your Kudos and your comments, seriously love reading them!

Beth leans heavily against the apartment stairwell door, elbowing the push bar hard to open it, hands full of tote bags. 

She bought way too much at the store, but she’s on a stress baking binge yet again, and she didn’t want to risk running out of supplies this time. 

She starts climbing the first flight of stairs and is just starting the second when her phone starts to vibrate in her back pocket. 

Beth groans as she pauses mid step, wondering if she can maneuver the bags around just enough to reach into her pocket. She really doesn’t want to drop them all on the steps. 

The vibrating stops and she lets out a low sigh, hoping it wasn’t important. It’ll just have to wait until she gets to her apartment. 

Beth hears the stairwell door open downstairs and footsteps jogging up and leans over to see Matt making his way up. He’s texting on his phone, so doesn’t even notice her at first, and Beth feels bad for wishing he’d walk right on by without paying her any attention. 

But he lifts his head up as he rounds the railing for the second set of stairs and stops in his tracks when he sees her. 

“Hey! I was just calling you.” He hesitantly smiles and Beth feels a pang of guilt. “You feeling any better?”

Beth smiles weakly, nodding, the guilt ratcheting up exponentially. 

“Great! Maybe we could reschedule that date then?” He closes the distance between them, holding out his hand, and she’s confused for a second, until she realizes he’s silently offering to help her with her many bags. 

“Oh.” Beth closes her eyes briefly, opening them as she shakes her head, more at herself then at him. “I am so sorry Matt, I just think I'm not ready to do any sort of dating right now.” She rushes it out, trying to make this as painless as possible for the both of them. 

To his credit, Matt takes it pretty well, smile only faltering for a second before he nods, still offering to help her with her bags. She lets him, that guilt still gnawing at her insides, and she thanks him profusely when they reach her door, before he leaves her to go to his own apartment. 

Beth glances at Rio’s door as she unlocks her own, wondering if he’s home. She hasn’t heard from him since the other morning, when she texted him about possibly getting together and he’d texted back that he was sick. 

The fact that it’s the same excuse she used on Matt the other night had caused her to briefly spiral into a state of panic. Was he blowing her off? Was she being too clingy, texting him back so soon after what had happened between them? Was there some unspoken waiting period she didn’t know about? 

This is exactly why she was so reluctant to put herself out there again. It’s been too long since she’s been on the dating scene, and she’d jumped right off the deep end with Rio. 

How, exactly, were you supposed to act when you’ve had an intense sexual back and forth with your neighbor that culminated in you coming so hard you saw stars and then said neighbor running off right after? 

Had he gotten what he wanted from her and now he wasn’t interested anymore? 

Except, he hadn’t really gotten anything from her. She’d gotten more out of that night than he had. And really, he seemed to have enjoyed himself just as much, if not more, than she had. He’d seemed really reluctant to leave, had even promised to see her later, so was she reading too much into it? 

Beth sighs as she picks up her bags and steps into her apartment, closing the door behind her. 

So, she’ll just spend some time distracting herself by baking. Maybe she’ll even bake him something for when he feels better. Maybe some cookies. Or some brownies. 

If he’s really sick, she could make him some soup, take it over later along with whatever she decides to bake. 

That wouldn't be too weird right? Just stopping by to drop it off, she won’t even try to stick around, just make sure he’s doing okay. 

She nods her head as she rationalizes her thinking, deciding she's going to do it. 

She bakes into the late afternoon before starting on the soup. She takes out the custom cookbook Annie had gotten her for Christmas last year. It’s filled with all of Beth’s personal recipes and funny little notations from Annie, with extra blank pages for her to add to in the back. It’s one of Beth’s favorite gifts. 

She knows her soup recipe by heart, but still opens the book and flips through the pages to find it. It’s comforting to have it open and on its little wooden stand, glancing at it every once in awhile just in case. 

Beth thinks back to when her and Annie were younger, when Annie used to get sick. She’d went through several experimental soups before finding a winner with this one. It made Annie feel better every single time. Beth smiles at the memory as she chops up ingredients and adds them to the pot simmering on the stove. She makes a mental note to herself to call Annie later and check in. 

Beth hums a made up tune as she moves around the kitchen, keeping an eye on the stove as she starts packaging up the various desserts she’d made earlier. She sets aside some of the brownies for Rio, smiling as she thinks about him tasting them. He’d really enjoyed her cupcakes and these were even better than those. 

Beth scrolls through her phone, distracting herself while she waits for the soup to finish. She goes through various social media apps, searching for Rio on each one. It’s not the first time she’s done this, and just like all her previous searches, nothing comes up. She’s still trying to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. 

Beth checks the time, stepping up to the stove and turning it off, stirring the contents in the pot and then moving it to a different burner to cool off a bit. 

She searches through her cupboards, looking for something to transport it in to Rio’s apartment. She finds a large thermos and pulls it out, rinsing it out in the sink a bit and then taking it over to the stove. 

It fits about half the contents of the pot and she figures that’s probably more than enough. She screws the lid on and sets it down next to the container of brownies. 

Beth takes her cooking apron off (another favorite gift, this one from Ruby, a blue and red floral painterly pattern that she loves) and hurries into her room to change out of her current clothing. She rationalizes it with the fact that she’s been in them running errands and baking all day. Going to see Rio has absolutely nothing to do with it. 

She pulls on a red and white floral wrap dress that she hasn’t worn in ages, rolling her eyes at herself as she pulls on her strappy heels, trying not to think about the dress she’d been wearing that night and how easy it had been for him to get under it... 

_That_ is not what _this_ is about. Although... don’t they say it’s good to sweat out a fever? 

Beth huffs out a laugh, shaking her head as she pushes the heel of her hands against her eyes, groaning. 

This is a terrible idea. 

But she’s going to do it anyway. 

Beth heads to the kitchen, gathering up the food containers and trying to tamp down on the nervous butterflies erupting in her stomach as she steps out of her apartment and over to Rio’s. She stands outside his door for a minute, trying to psych herself up enough to actually knock. 

And god, how embarrassing would it be if he just opened the door right now? 

With that thought in mind she knocks, very gently in case he’s actually sleeping or something and then steps back and...waits. 

When there’s no answer, she considers knocking again but...what if he is actually sleeping off his illness? She doesn’t want to wake him, make him get up to answer the door just for her. 

She considers leaving the Tupperware outside his door for him to find, but no, that won’t work either, who knows how long it could sit before he finds it. And then he’d have to guess who it was from. Or someone could come by and take it. 

Beth chews on her bottom lip as her eyes fall to the doorknob. She could see if it’s unlocked, set the containers down inside. Leave him a note. 

The way he harps on her about leaving her door unlocked, his is bound to be bolted shut anyway, so no harm in at least trying. 

Right? 

Beth shifts the food containers to one arm and reaches out, turning the doorknob and almost gasping when the door actually clicks open. 

Well, _shit_. 

She panics for a moment, thinks about shutting it and running back to her apartment, but then a tiny smug (and petty) little part of her pushes it’s way to the front, like a mini devil on her shoulder. She can’t pass up the opportunity to tease him mercilessly about this—she glances down at the soup, remembers that he’s sick—once he gets better, of course. 

Beth quietly steps into the apartment, closing the door carefully behind her and stops, taking a minute to look around. The layout is pretty much the same as hers, just a few tiny differences here and there. The decorating style is absurdly different. She remembers him saying he “ _didn’t buy shit from IKEA_ ”. And she can see that very clearly now. 

She can’t believe the Rio she knows is such a bougie art snob. 

Well, actually, maybe that makes sense. 

Beth steps further into the apartment and her eyebrow furrows a bit as she notices a bedroom set up further to the back of the open space loft. 

There’s an enclosed bedroom space, why would he have his bedroom set up out here? 

Beth hears the low rumble of Rio’s voice coming from that very bedroom space and she smiles a little as she moves closer to the open doorway, biting back her automatic need to tease him about his unlocked door. 

The smile drops from her face however, when she steps into the doorway and looks into the room. 

Rio’s there, back to her, sitting on the edge of the bed that’s situated in the center of the room. But he’s not alone. 

There’s a little boy curled up in the bed and Beth feels like she’s been punched in the gut, all of the air leaving her lungs, as she takes in his features. 

The same features as Rio. 

Suddenly, the boys eyes land on Beth and she freezes, even as he smiles shyly. 

“Hi.” He says and Beth resists the urge to run away as Rio whips around to look, a slew of emotions passing over his face in a matter of seconds, before he smooths his features out, face settling into a blank mask. 

Beth forces herself to move, holding her free hand up and giving a little finger wave. “Hi.” She can’t just ignore him, his cute little face is melting her heart. 

But her mind doesn’t stop working in overdrive, because _oh god_ , he _does_ have a secret family after all. Is some woman going to appear out of nowhere and ask her what the hell she’s doing here? Beth shifts nervously, her whole body screaming for her to leave. 

But no woman comes out and Rio’s shifting off the bed, moving to stand next to it. He leans down and runs his fingers through the boys hair in an achingly familiar way and Beth’s heart skips a beat. 

Then Rio’s talking to him, _introducing_ them to each other. “This is Ms. Elizabeth, daddy’s neighbor.” And Beth tries not to wince at how impersonal that sounds. Rio’s eyes briefly meet Beth’s, “This is Marcus. He’s been feelin’ a lil sick lately.” He turns back to Marcus, smile on his lips, “Haven’t you buddy.” 

“Yeah.” 

And— _Oh_. 

Beth’s heart clenches as she looks down at the soup in her hands. “Well, I brought some soup over. Old family recipe, guaranteed to cure even the yuckiest of tummy aches.” 

Rio’s eyes drop to the containers in her hands and a small smile passes over his lips before he turns back to Marcus. “What do we say?” 

“Thank you.” comes the tiny reply and god, Beth feels like she might just cry. 

“Why don’t you say bye--” Rio starts and Beth tries to ignore the pain that causes, but Marcus is sitting up in bed, eyes fixed on Beth. 

“Wait, can Ms. Liz’beth sing to me before she leaves? Like momma?” 

They both freeze at the mention of his mom. Rio opens his mouth, probably to say no, to spare her (them both, really) from anymore embarrassment. Beth slowly steps further into the room before he can, and Rio turns to her instead. 

“Is that what your mom does when you’re sick? To make it all better?” She asks softly, and Marcus nods, settling back into his pillows the closer she gets. 

“I don’t mind.” She says to Rio, “If you don’t.” 

She can tell he’s hesitant, a war playing out internally. Finally, he concedes, nodding as he takes the food from her and she switches places with him. 

Beth settles in on the edge of the bed, looking around at the room. The decorations and books and bedding, every detail obviously tailored to this one little boy. 

Marcus curls up on his side to face her. “You’re really pretty.” He says. “I like your dress.” 

She hears Rio snort behind her and resists the urge to turn around and glare at him. “Thank you. You are very sweet. So, which song makes you feel better the most?” 

“Twinkle little star.” His eyes light up as he answers. 

“That’s a good one.” She smiles, reaching out to brush her fingers over his forehead without thinking. 

Marcus leans into her touch and Beth inhales sharply, the overwhelming feeling in her chest ready to burst open. 

Beth brings her hand back to her lap and starts singing softly. Marcus smiles sleepily through the song, eyelids growing heavy until they finally shut completely. Beth sings through a few more verses, until his breathing evens out and she’s positive he’s asleep. 

She slides off the bed as quickly and quietly as she can and Rio tilts his head, a silent gesture for her to follow him. 

She’s a little surprised when he leads her into the kitchen instead of back out of his apartment. 

Beth leans her hip against the kitchen island as he sets the containers down on top of it. There’s an awkward silence, and she just can’t _stand_ it anymore. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t--” 

“You didn’t know. I know.” 

It doesn’t escape either one of their notice, the tension that follows that statement. The knowledge that they’ve been growing closer for weeks and he never even hinted at having a son. 

Beth’s mind is racing with a million questions. 

Marcus looks about five, the same age as Sadie. 

" _Nah, I don't hate kids_." He’d said when she’d invited him to Sadie’s party. 

And everything else slowly falls into place. 

But how in the hell has she never noticed him around before? And, _god_ , how has she not noticed _another woman_ before? 

Rio seems to be reading all the questions and emotions playing out across her face. His jaw rocks a little as he rolls his shoulders back, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“His ma and I aint together.” He looks off to the side, like he doesn’t even want to see her and Beth swallows the lump that forms in her throat. “She had some family stuff goin’ on, took him down state for awhile.” 

And now they're back. 

What does that mean for them? Was he ever going to mention Marcus? Or had he not planned for them to get that far in their relationship? 

Beth looks down at the wood floor, putting all of her concentration into examining the knots in the wood, trying to make sense of a pattern that isn’t there. 

The silence stretches out between them and Beth sucks in a wet, shaky breath as tears sting her eyes. 

She is _not_ going to cry in front of him. 

“Okay, well...I hope Marcus feels better soon. That soup should help a lot. It always made Annie feel better right away. Of course, the brownies helped too.” Beth huffs out a little laugh, shaking her head at her own rambling. “I’ll just...see you.” She doesn’t bother trying to make eye contact with him, just turns on her heel, almost tripping over her own feet in her rush to get out of his apartment. 

As soon as she’s inside her apartment, she collapses against the door, hands coming up to cover her face. 

Why does the Universe seem to hate her so much? Is her love life some sort of giant cosmic joke, and she’s the only one not in on it? 

Beth groans as she wipes at her face, reaching down to pull her heels off, tossing them aside and shuffling over to the kitchen to pour herself a healthy dose of bourbon. 

She plops down on her couch, reaching over to the coffee table to grab her phone. She has a moment of déjà vu at the familiar motions, the memory of Rio kneeling down in front of her invading her thoughts. 

Beth starts to text Ruby and Annie, but pauses. Should she be telling them about Marcus? Rio hadn’t even told _her_. Just because she knows about it now, doesn’t mean she can or should share it. Beth sighs as she tosses her phone back down, leaning back against the couch cushions. 

Maybe she should text Rio. Maybe they can sit down and actually talk about this. 

Except he couldn’t even look at her when he was talking to her in his kitchen. When he was forcing those words out, his whole body vibrating with tension. 

Beth sighs and brings her glass up to her lips, taking a long drink as she closes her eyes. She pictures Rio’s face when he first turned around and saw her standing in the doorway of his son’s bedroom. 

That vast array of emotions that crossed his face, and not one of them relief or happiness at her discovery. 

She thinks this hurts her just as much as it’s hurting him. 

Were they over before they even got started?


End file.
